Want to go Home Prepared...Confused by contradicting info

[kayla baxter]

My actual vet is pro raw, some of the other vets there are not. I had one of them tell me that I absolutely had to add vitamins and supplements when Ghost went in for his neuter. She said that his values would not be balanced without them. Low and behold his pre op blood work showed that everything was spot on.
Ideally, I would feed prey model. My dogs used to be fed that way, but it's a time and convenience thing for us. My last attempt at switching cats to prey model was a nightmare and after a few months only one of the two was even starting to chew thin chicken bones. I also had to stand right over them or they would take the meat and run away with it. With three kittens now, we just don't have the time to stand over each one for half an hour while they figure out how to eat three times a day. Maybe in a few months when they go on their adult feeding schedule and amounts I'll try to feed more prey model. I'm still trying to get Clem to eat the ground, she won't touch chunks of meat right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

[FranklinStreetWest]

Originally Posted by dweamgoil

I am not a big fan of grinding meats for cats. Cats are obligate carnivores and need to exercise their jaws. This is why their teeth have that shape. I am not even exactly sure where this "bone chewing phobia" comes from, but it seems many people buy into it. I think we do a dis-service to our cats by not allowing them to do what they have evolved to do.

Thank you for taking the time to detail what you do during hairball season, what your reasoning is behind things and your basic theology in feeding. I wonder if the "no bones in the food mythos" stems from a crossover time where animals of use...such as dogs and cats...became pets. Moved out of the barnyards and back alleys eating prey and butchering scraps, and into the house eating cooked scraps. Then some poor hapless pet crunched into a bone like normal and it splintered and killed them becuase it was cooked. Then a myth was born...????

Being born well inside the last 50 years, it really only occurred to me recently that "house cats" as full time captives might be a new idea on a broad scale. I have been brought up under the doctrine that cats and dogs NEEEED to be fed dry food because it was better for their teeth. I think that must have been what the pet food companies pushed or something. Growing up I remember, Dad's was "okay", Iams was "good", Eukanuba was "Best".

[FranklinStreetWest]

Originally Posted by catinthemirror

Hi! Sorry I don't think I welcomed you to the board yet.....

....There isn't anything wrong with feeding cheap cuts of meat! In fact my cats seem to prefer cheap things like gizzards, heart, kidney, pork tongue and chicken thighs. I would just recommend using more than one kind of meat (and not using only heart). I try feed my cats a variety of meat so that they don't end up getting too much or too little of any one nutrient. They can't overdose on taurine but they do need more than just taurine. Sometimes they can also develop an intolerance if fed only one kind of food for a long time, so that's also something to consider.
.....

Thank you for the "Welcome to the board..." catinthemirror!! Heart has been the first muscle meat that I have encountered that was affordable enough to start this endeavor. I had not considered cuts like tongue, spleen, kidney...and I hadn't checked to see if gizzard was considered muscle or organ in the liver sense of the term. I will have to check with the butcher tomorrow to see if those products are available. As a matter of fact, when I was asking about getting some pigs blood (for English Black Pudding), the butcher suggested I try one of the reputable, small slaughter houses. That might be an even better outlet for those obscure items. Where do you get weird cuts like tongue and kidney?

I looked at my freezer last night and it is soooo tiny!! I can see already that I will need to keep an eye out on Craigslist for another one!!

[FranklinStreetWest]

Originally Posted by kayla baxter

My actual vet is pro raw,.....
Ideally, I would feed prey model. My dogs used to be fed that way, but it's a time and convenience thing for us. My last attempt at switching cats to prey model was a nightmare and after a few months only one of the two was even starting to chew thin chicken bones. I also had to stand right over them or they would take the meat and run away with it. .....

Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

LOL....I know it's not a joking matter....I love the theory of feeding little, re-warmed, already dead mice and birds. But then I think about finding little mouse bodies in random places....all bloated and stinky and forgotten about. Until at last I find them with my nose or foot....

We have nine cats...7 are strictly indoor. I don't have a problem watching them nosh on little critters...but their trade-off for allying with this human in our species is gonna have to be that it stays in the bowl or the fridge.

[catinthemirror]

I'm not sure where you're located, but I'm lucky enough to have several large Asian grocery stores within driving distance. They have all sorts of interesting things in Asian grocery stores (it's where I regularly get fresh heart, tongue and gizzards; and they have lots of other interesting things like beef lung, pork uteri and intestines, chicken feet), so if you happen to have one nearby do check it out!

I hope you have luck at the butcher or one of the slaughter houses. Some people are lucky enough to get good deals buying the less desirable cuts of meat directly from local butchers. I haven't been so lucky but it never hurts to ask.

Gizzards and tongue are considered muscle meat by the way. Kidney and spleen are both organ meat, and I feed my cats both for their 5% other organ needs. They seem to like kidney more than spleen though, for some reason.

[FranklinStreetWest]

Thanks for the tips catinthemirror! I'm in central Michigan. It would take some digging to find markets that offer traditional food nearby. But I am at the beginning of this journey...so I will keep my fingers crossed and hope I luck out.

If that doesn't work, perhaps I shall have to start raising quail on a larger scale than I initially intended. That could be an option too.

[dweamgoil]

One of the smartest investments when I realized I wanted to go fully raw was a chest freezer. I bought this one almost 2 years ago:

FCM7SUWW | GE® 7.0 Cu. Ft. Manual Defrost Chest Freezer | GE Appliances

It's basically the cat's freezer. We use the one attached to the fridge for the humans.

I am lucky also that our vet practice is raw supportive. It's nice to be able to work with someone you don't have to hide your cats' diet or have to fabricate white lies. I also do like catsinthemirror and shop at Asian markets. I buy a lot of entrails and the less desirable cuts of meat. They also have my favorite the chicken dollar bag. 2 chicken carcasses (no head, no wings, no legs, no breast) in a bag for $1. I quarter each carcass and that is a meal for my cats. Can't go wrong feeding 4 cats for $.50/meal.

[FranklinStreetWest]

What a deal!!

I was looking at my freezer in the basement today, and the poor thing is packed to the gills! Mostly for the animals...we don't often buy meat for ourselves.

[hoofmaiden]

Originally Posted by dweamgoil

They also have my favorite the chicken dollar bag. 2 chicken carcasses (no head, no wings, no legs, no breast) in a bag for $1. I quarter each carcass and that is a meal for my cats. Can't go wrong feeding 4 cats for $.50/meal.

Your cats are eating a chicken quarter each??? That is a LOT of meat, not to mention a LOT of bone! Regular sized chicken, not cornish game hen?

[dweamgoil]

Originally Posted by hoofmaiden

Your cats are eating a chicken quarter each??? That is a LOT of meat, not to mention a LOT of bone! Regular sized chicken, not cornish game hen?

It's not that much meat. There's no breast meat, no wings or legs, but it is a good amount of bone. They have been eating this once per week for over a year and no issues in the litter box. They also maintain a good weight. They are all under 9.5 lbs. and Sasha and Azalia are rather large cats.